Tuesday 4th April; 7:30pm

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What has happened and is happening in Ukraine

Chris Parry

Chris Parry will review the Ukrainian and Russian military campaigns in Ukraine, highlight some of the salient lessons and forecast what the conflict might mean for the future of geopolitics and warfare.

About the speaker - Rear Admiral Dr Chris Parry

After reading Modern History at Jesus College Oxford, Chris Parry spent 36 enjoyable, rewarding years in the Royal Navy as an aviator and warfare officer. He commanded the destroyer HMS GLOUCESTER, the Amphibious Assault Ship HMS FEARLESS, the UK’s Amphibious Task Group and the Maritime Warfare Centre. He also held five senior Joint and UK Ministry of Defence appointments, with responsibility for the strategic development, policy, effectiveness and operational deployment of all three armed forces out to 2030.

As well as sailing every sea, he experienced regular operational tours and combat operations in Northern Ireland, the Gulf and the Falklands, where he rescued 16 SAS troopers from a glacier during a hurricane in South Georgia and disabled the Argentinian submarine SANTA FE. He was awarded the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators Helicopter Rescue Award in 1983 and his Falklands War diary was published as the best- selling ‘Down South’ in 2012.

Nowadays, he runs his own strategic forecasting and trouble-shooting company, advising governments, leading commercial companies and banks about geo-political and strategic issues, future trends and systemic risk. The founding Chair of the UK’s Marine Management Organization, he is an internationally recognized authority on maritime issues, as well as in countering terrorism, criminality and unconventional conflict.

With a doctorate in organisational psychology, Chris is a visiting Fellow at Churchill College Cambridge and presents on strategic issues, geopolitics and risk at several universities in the UK (Oxford, Reading, Swansea), the US (Ivy League institutions and the US Naval War College) and elsewhere. He also teaches strategic leadership, risk management and organisational psychology within a number of corporates and at the UK Defence Academy and the Global Leadership Academy. He appears as a regular broadcaster and commentator in international and UK media and is an active author, most recently with the prescient Super Highway: Sea Power in the 21st Century’.

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Wednesday 15th March; 7:30pm

BMMHS Meeting Venue

Woodcote Village Hall, Reading Road, Woodcote, RG8 0QY

The Glider Pilot Regiment – Silently To War

Tony Bray

In the dark days of 1940 Britain and the Commonwealth stood very much alone. Most of Europe was enslaved by the Nazis. The miracle evacuation from Dunkirk had returned over 338,000 soldiers back to Britain but with very little equipment. The Royal Navy was doing a wonderful job of commanding the seas, and the Royal Air Force was about the fight and win the Battle of Britain. The Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, was anxious that Britain should develop ways of striking at the enemy, and he ordered that 5,000 parachute troops should be recruited and trained.

It was quickly realised that developing a well trained parachute force alone would not be enough. Parachute troops, who are often landed well behind the front line, can carry limited amounts of heavy weapons and supplies. To be effective they would need to have weapons and logistical support landing with them. How could that be done?

The talk starts with a short background outlining how the airborne forces, both parachute and glider-borne, were developed in 1940. He will introduce the four main military gliders used by the Allies – from doing glider conversion training in the Hotspur, to the massive tank-carrying Hamilcar and also explain how the future pilots of the Glider Pilot Regiment were selected and trained.

The session will include an explanation of what it was like to fly a Horsa glider into Normandy just after midnight on 6^thJune 1944, to seize the bridge over the Caen Canal at Benouville, later to be called Pegasus Bridge. This will include the overall story to the experiences of individual soldiers and some recently-recorded interviews with four of our veterans, as they tell you what it was like to fly these huge gliders into a live battlefield.

You will hear how the developing skills of the glider pilots were matched by the improved operational effectiveness of the Airborne Divisions, from the disappointing invasion of Sicily in July 1943, to the successful crossing of the Rhine in March 1945. Then hear how the Glider Pilot Regiment morphed into the modern Army Air Corps.

About the speaker - Tony Bray

Tony grew up in Thatcham and attended Newbury Grammar School. As a keen cyclist, and member of Newbury Road Club, he toured most of the local byways surrounding Newbury and Reading. From school Tony went to Sandhurst and was commissioned into the Royal Corps of Transport.

After leaving the army he was a manager in BT and his final role in the BT Management College naturally led to going freelance. He continues to enjoy providing clients with varied training and consultancy services. Along the way he has written over 20 books on management and training.

Tony has had a life-long interest in aviation since first flying solo in a glider at 16, then later qualifying as a private pilot, and then returned to gliding at Lasham.

His interest in the Glider Pilot Regiment grew naturally from his military and aviation experiences, prompted by publication of the book A Bridge Too Far. In addition to visiting many of the mainstream military sites in Northern Europe, he has also been to some less well known, notably Masada and Oradour-sur-Glane.